Warren fire investigators are trying to determine whether a Saturday morning blaze that destroyed three condominiums and damaged three others is connected to a fire that occurred less than 15 hours earlier in one of the homes.

The pre-dawn blaze saddened and angered residents of the Ventura Condominiums, in the 29400 block of Eldorado Plaza near 12 Mile and Hayes roads, left homeless. They blamed the occupants of a neighboring unit where both fires started and where neighbors said three adults and as many as nine children lived.

Margaret Thompson and her husband spent Friday night at a hotel after the blaze that started in an adjoining home that afternoon caused considerable damage. They were scheduled to meet an insurance adjuster back at their condominium Saturday morning and were shocked by what they saw.

“All the fire trucks were here again and my home is destroyed,” said the teary-eyed woman, who lived in the townhouse-style condominium with her husband for 25 years. “We don’t know what we’re going to do now.”

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Cathy Lafata, who resides in an end unit of the row of six townhouse-style condominiums, said she and her fiancé were awakened by someone banging on their door and yelling to get out.

“I grabbed what I could and ran out,” she said.

Warren Fire Commissioner Wilburt McAdams said firefighters were dispatched to the scene at 6:45 a.m. Flames were through the roofs of three of the homes as fire crews arrived. The incident went to a second alarm about 10 minutes later. With assistance from firefighters from Center Line and the U.S. Army TACOM complex, crews got the blaze under control shortly after 7:30 a.m.

No injuries were reported.

“Given the time of day, it could’ve been much worse,” said McAdams, noting that many people are usually asleep at that time on a weekend. Fortunately, the Thompsons were not home Saturday morning and the people who lived next door where Friday’s fire began also had been forced to vacate that day.

The first incident began in an upstairs bedroom. Investigators don’t know how the fire was started, but believe it was accidentally caused by an adult in the home. A woman who resided there was treated at a local hospital for smoke inhalation and released, fire officials said.

Officials don’t know what occurred between 8 p.m. Friday when that condominium was boarded up, to Saturday morning’s blaze in the same home.

“We don’t know if they’re related. We don’t know if they’re separate incidents,” McAdams said. The fire commissioner said foul play has not been dismissed as a factor in Saturday’s blaze. He pointed out that damages caused twice by flames in one location makes the ensuing investigation more difficult.

The condominium owners said a woman who resided in the home where the fires started told a neighbor that children were playing with candles. Neighbors said the occupants, including as many as nine children ranging from toddlers to teenagers, have been a nightmare. They said a man began renting the home last May with up to four children and that his girlfriend moved in. That woman allowed a woman friend with five children to move in, too, neighbors said.

The children are usually left alone, often playing outside until midnight, and screaming and profanity-filled arguments are common and have spilled outside, the residents said.

“Nothing like this ever happened here,” said Alissa Savage from her home living room in the row of townhouses to the rear of the burned units. She said the condo complex was a “perfect” neighborhood during the 12 years she has lived there, until the people moved into the unit where the fires started.

“I was awakened by shouts. A lot of shouting, lot of cussing. Right away I looked out the window and saw a lot of smoke across the backyard,” said Savage, adding that she saw an unknown man walking north.

Irfan Nukic, 69, awoke and yelled to his wife, Elvida, to get out of their condominium. Mrs. Nukic said they did not have insurance for the contents of their home, which sustained heavy water and smoke damage. The couple managed to later retrieve a TV, some framed family photographs and a pile of clothes.

Police Commissioner Jere Green said he has assigned two detectives in addition to an evidence technician to the case. He confirmed that the city’s police departments has made multiple runs to the home where the fire started for reports of domestic problems.

“I don’t believe this s---! Oh my God!,” landlord Pete Ingoglia said as he arrived and viewed the gutted homes.

Ingoglia said he purchased the condominium as an investment property — one of 15 he said he owns in the city — approximately a year-and-a-half ago. One of his tenants of his destroyed condominium was “hysterical” as she phoned him Friday.

“This was a good example of why you want renters’ insurance,” he said. “This is unbelievable.”